Resolution on Priotizing the Recruitment, Hiring, Retention and Promotion of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Staff, Faculty and Administrators

RATIONALE: In response to the social unrest and state sanctioned violence against Black lives throughout the United States, San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney outlined in a letter (July 17, 2020) to the campus community her commitment to, “Improving our hiring practices for staff, faculty and administrators to include anti-bias education and other best practices to ensure more diverse pools and hiring.” While we acknowledge that the University is experiencing a budget crisis and hiring chill, the campus needs to invest and commit to institutional change at every level, including recruiting, hiring, retaining and promoting staff, faculty, and administrators who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) . Critically, these aspirations should be guided by specific recommendations to ensure the creation of an equitable, brave and inclusive environment that is representative of our student body and is free of discrimination, harassment and bias in which BIPOC members of the university community can thrive. Therefore, the purpose of this resolution is to provide specific recommendations for closing the significant equity gap between the BIPOC demographics of our students and employees across all levels (i.e., staff, faculty and administrators).

at the heels of social unrest and state sanctioned violence against Black lives there was a call to action for all institutions to address systemic racism and oppression. This resolution calls to look within and take the courage to lead and create an Anti-Racist University that centers BIPOC with intersections that include, class, gender identity, sexual identity, and disability; and

according to Fall 2019 campus data approximately 82% of SF State students are BIPOC. While our student population is increasingly richly diverse, campus staff, faculty, and administrators are predominantly racially white. (BIPOC statistics include: 55% staff; 37% faculty; and according to SF State Human Resources, 49% administrators, and percentages of BIPOC employees would fall dramatically if the College of Ethnic Studies were removed from these data.) Aligning the ethnic diversity of employees with our student population presents an opportunity for transformational change at our University; and

BIPOC staff, faculty and administrators have a “unique burden to bear in order to fit into and survive within the political and cultural paradigm of American higher education,” especially in carrying out service to community and other roles that white-identified staff, faculty and administrators often do not have to assume. This significant body of important and taxing work called cultural taxation “is not usually rewarded by the institution on whose behalf the service is performed.” Further, BIPOC staff and counselor faculty carry additional responsibilities because of departmental requests specifically for BIPOC employees to attend and facilitate events as well as student demand for counselors and advisors who look like them. It is not unusual to find across academic and service departments one, if any, BIPOC service provider on staff; and

it is essential to support our students by creating an equitable and diverse staff, faculty and administration that both reflects the student body and cultivates a thriving professional environment for BIPOC employees that include resources for retention and promotion and recognizing and compensating for cultural taxation; and

the dearth of diversity among staff, faculty and administrators is closely tied to recruitment and hiring practices. We must focus on changing campus practices that contribute to the lack of diversity in hiring outcomes. We must question assumptions, recognize stereotypes that harm candidates, and continually reexamine hiring practices; and